


Darcy's Hanukkah

by BookMonsterEliz



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hanukkah, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:22:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28005345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookMonsterEliz/pseuds/BookMonsterEliz
Summary: Just some small bits of fluff about Darcy enjoying her Hanukkah in Avenger's Tower.Set after Avengers and Thor: The Dark World
Relationships: Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster/Thor
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. Night 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in a mini universe after Avengers and after Thor: Dark World. Everyone has an apartment in Stark Tower, which Tony rebuilt as Avengers Tower, because who wants to live out in the middle of nowhere? Tony and Steve actually talk to each other, even about feelings, with a little help from Bruce (who never ran away and is a good listener, when he’s not just pulled an all nighter, really), and Rhodey. Pepper and Jane are not absent, and totally kick ass. In fact, Tony is funding Jane’s “Build a Bifrost'' project, and when he found out that Jane, Thor, and Darcy were all sharing a teeny, tiny little apartment, he offered them apartments in Avenger’s Tower. He had built an entire floor with Thor in mind after all. He declared he’d heard enough of Darcy’s complaining about her lack of sleep due to their noisy “extracurricular activities” and no, it wasn’t charity, it was his goddamn duty to help a sister out. She becomes the Avengers Liaison, basically a glorified Avengers babysitter/lab rat/social media pro. Darcy loves it.

##  Avenger’s Tower December 8, 2013

Darcy lit the candle then gave the match a quick shake, extinguishing it’s flame before letting it drop onto the platter. She gently moved the lit candle to the single candle standing on the far right of the Hanukkiah, smiling in satisfaction as the small wick lit up with a bright sizzle. She put the first candle back in the center spot and leaned back to survey her handiwork. The bright blue candles burned steadily in the simple silver menorah.

She recited the prayers, singing them in a low tone then reciting the English. 

_ Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah. _

Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has made us holy through God’s commandments, and commanded us to light the Hanukkah candles.

_ Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, she-asah nisim la’avoteinu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh. _

Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the universe, who performed wonders for our ancestors in history at this very time of year.

_ Baruch atah adonai elohenu melech ha’olam, shehecheyanu, v’kiyimanu, v’higiyanu lazman hazeh. _

Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the universe, who gave us life, sustains us, and enabled us to reach this season.

_ Ahmein _

“Ahmein,” Jane’s voice joined hers. 

“Lady Darcy, that was a splendid invocation. Thank you for sharing this ceremony of light with me,” Thor boomed. 

“Thanks. Wait until the eighth day to thank me though, that’s when it looks most impressive, with all of the candles lit,” Darcy said, gesturing to the box of candles sitting next to the hanukkiah in the window sill.

“I will look forward to it. Now, Jane mentioned that you have a special feast for your ceremony?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a feast, exactly, but it’s traditional to eat latkes and doughnuts.”

“Uh huh. So you spent all afternoon in the kitchen just on latkes? It doesn’t smell like you just made latkes,” Jane said skeptically. 

She didn’t believe for a minute that Darcy hadn’t jumped on the opportunity to do some culinary magic in the kitchen. While she couldn’t be trusted not to burn water, her friend and assistant loved to cook and bake. Stark had gotten wind of this while renovating their new apartments in Avengers Tower and Darcy’s apartment had a very impressive kitchen with many shiny appliances. When she wasn’t working, taking care of the team, surfing the net, or bingeing the latest book or tv series, Darcy could be reliably found in her new kitchen.

“Ok, I made a little feast,” Darcy admitted as they made their way to the kitchen.

Jane and Thor helped her as she pulled the feast out of the oven and the fridge. She’d roasted a turkey, and had a few side dishes of vegetables, along with a massive pile of savory latkes. She had sour cream, ketchup, hot sauce, and home made apple sauce available as toppings. They had two bottles of dark red wine on the table that she declared were much better than Manischewitz. A plate of jelly doughnuts served as dessert. 

“This is a feast indeed, Lady Darcy! Your latkes are delicious, I will have more with the sour cream,” he declared, piling a second helping onto his plate.

“Have at it, I made plenty,” she said, swiping another latke for her own plate. 

“What is the reason for your people's festival? Your invocation mentioned wonders?” Thor asked around a mouthful of potato.

“Well, the short of it is similar to most of the Jewish festivals- they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!” Darcy said, lifting her glass.

“Ahmein to that!” Jane said, lifting her own glass and clinking it against Darcy’s. 

Thor joined them in the toast, and they all drank deeply. Jane opened the second bottle as she asked Darcy to elaborate.

“You should tell Thor the story.” 

“Sure, though it’s been a while since I’ve read the Maccabees. Basically, it’s set in good old BCE back in ye olden times in Israel. The Isrealites were invaded by the Greeks, and the general Antiochus and his army had taken over. They outlawed all of the traditional Jewish practices and defiled the temple, using the altar to sacrifice pigs to their gods.” 

“Pigs are unclean and against the rules for Jews,” Jane interrupted to explain to Thor.

Thor shook his head, sympathizing.

“So, they weren’t allowed to read the Torah or keep Shabbat, or any of the other holidays and festivals. They tried to practice in secret. They would meet in the streets and secretly read the Torah scrolls, hiding them when soldiers would come near, pretending to gamble instead. Because of that we play a game called dreidel, we can play it after dinner if you want,” Darcy offered.

“I would be happy to wager against you in your ancient game!” Thor said, grinning at the prospect.

“Cool, I have gelt, chocolate coins, we can use. Anyways, the Isrealites were not happy to follow the Greek ways of life, and didn’t like having Greek rule, and the Greeks in their Temple. Antiochus was a tyrant and would regularly torture people who were caught keeping any of the laws in the Torah. We have 2 books of Maccabees that tell all about it, and it can get pretty gorey. People were torn apart and tortured, kids were killed. All for not abandoning their religion.”

“Did they fight?” Thor asked, draining another glass of wine as he listened intently.

“Hell yeah! They were an occupied nation, so they staged gorilla attacks against the Greek soldiers. One of the priests, Matityahu and his five sons, including the great hero Judah Maccabee, led the revolt. He refused to sacrifice to the other gods and with his sons he fled to the wilderness. They would stage small attacks that kept the invading army on edge, and Judah won many victories. Eventually they drove out the enemy and reclaimed the temple in Jerusalem.”

“A mighty warrior then!” Thor boomed with a smile.

“Yeah, he was. Once they got the temple back, he got rid of the statues of Zeus.” 

“The Jews don’t have any statues of their God, it’s forbidden. So having the other statues there was really offensive to them,” Jane explained. 

“Oh yeah, it was a biiiig no no,” Darcy agreed, “so they got rid of them all and cleaned the altar of the pigs blood. They wanted to relight their menorah and celebrate one of the most important holidays, which was important for the Temple rituals, but special oil had to be used and the Greeks had destroyed all but one jar of it. It would take 8 days to make more, but legend has it that they were too impatient to wait, so they used the oil they had and dedicated the temple. The miracle is that the one jar of oil that should have only lasted one day lasted all eight days until they could make more. So in celebration, they declared it a holiday for each year, the Festival of Lights. It’s just called Hanukkah now though. Because of the oil, it’s traditional to eat fried potatoes and fried doughnuts. And to light the special 9 candle menorah, with one new candle each night to celebrate the miracle of the oil.”

“A mighty wonder indeed! I am glad Judah Maccabee was able to restore your peoples freedom and temple so that we might feast and light your sacred candles,” Thor said.

“Me too, buddy. Me too. Now help me clear the table and I’ll get out the dreidels.”

Teaching Thor how to play turned out to be a lot of fun. Jane was familiar with the game, having played it with Darcy and other friends before. Thor picked up the rules quickly, and enthusiastically counted out the bag of golden foil covered chocolate between them. He had them in stitches when a few of his dreidel spins resulted in the small bit of plastic flying across the room, but he took the play gambling seriously and quickly tempered his strength with the toy. Jane ended up winning, but not before several of their chocolate coins had been eaten. She graciously split her winnings amongst the three of them, happy to share in the cheap chocolate. 

Darcy saw them off in the wee hours of the morning, watching them cross the hall to their own apartment hand in hand. She felt very happy for her dear friend Jane, who had found a bona fide prince who clearly adored her. She didn’t know if it was the wine making her feel sappy or the holiday cheer, but she went to bed with a smile on her face. 


	2. Night 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Darcy and Steve share some holiday cheer and encounter a wild Karen.

##  Avenger’s Tower December 9, 2013

The bell on the door rang pleasantly as they entered, adding to the festive atmosphere. Darcy took in a deep breath, allowing the strong scent of coffee and baked goods to fill her nose, exhaling loudly and happily as the door fell shut behind her. She pretended not to notice as Steve gave the room a quick critical once over, checking for exits and treats. To give him credit, he was discreet about it, and after his initial once over he relaxed. 

In her role as Avengers liaison, she’d taken it upon herself to teach Steve more about the modern world. If you didn’t count his time in the ice, he wasn’t that much older than herself, which was something almost everyone else on the team seemed to forget. He had been through a World War, very recently in his memory, and the experience wore on him as did the mantle of Captain America. But he wasn’t really an old fuddy duddy. He had spunk, and sarcasm in spades which Darcy could appreciate. 

She was determined to bring him into the 21st century and to help him let loose and be young, which led to them establishing a Monday/Friday standing hang out date. She’d recently introduced him to Starbucks. He wasn’t that impressed, preferring the strong dark coffees they found in the more hole in the wall diners, but Darcy insisted that the experience was important to his modern education.

Darcy was quickly distracted by the row of mugs on a nearby shelf.

“Ooooh, Steve! Look at this! It’s a candy cane!” she cooed, holding up a large round mug with textured candy cane stripes. 

“That’s neat. Look at this one,” he said, holding up one decorated with a village in red and gold and cream. He gestured towards another in the same color scheme but with geometrical poinsettias, “Do you think they did Iron Man colors on purpose?”

They laughed together, putting down the mugs before heading towards the counter. She would have to remember to come back later and get them for Tony. She’d been growing their collection of fun mugs in the communal and lab kitchens, and these would make for perfect additions.

There was a small line to the counter and they joined it. Steve was incognito, wearing a hoodie under his warm brown leather jacket and a blue Yankees baseball cap. She saw a few people look at him appreciatively but no one seemed to recognize him as Captain America. 

“Excuse me?!” the lady in line in front of them said angrily to the girl at the register.

“Happy holidays, ma’am,” she said, her happy smile having melted into a more fixed, polite customer service mask. 

Darcy felt sympathy for the girl, having been on the brunt end of a customer service exchange gone wrong herself. Also, the girl, Sania, her name tag read, was very pretty, with large deep brown eyes with perfectly executed winged eyeliner, a light dusting of cream and gold eye shadow, and full lips painted a shade of burgundy that perfectly matched her hijab. She was a little taller than Darcy and similarly curvy. Darcy was distracted from her dreamy staring as the angry middle class, middle aged white lady in front of them started in on her tirade. 

“Really? Happy holidays? I can’t believe it. It’s Christmas. Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. You’re in America now, sweety, get it right.” 

Sania simply raised one perfectly eyebrow at her, “Here at Starbucks we wish you a Happy Holiday, including Christmas, if that is the holiday you choose to keep, ma’am.”

“Hmph. That’s ridiculous. I can’t believe that we’ve come to that these days. What is the world coming to with all of this liberal nonsense?! I want to speak to your manager.” 

Sania’s smile turned sharp.

“I am the manager at this location. Now, if you’ll excuse me, unless you would like to order something else, I have other customers to serve.” 

“I’ll be calling corporate over this, just so you know,” the lady, well, she could hardly be called a lady, said before stalking over to the other side of the counter where a short kid with rainbow hair was mixing up several drinks. ‘

Darcy and Steve stepped up to the counter, Steve shaking his head. 

“Welcome to Starbucks, what can I get you today?” Sania asked them. 

Darcy tried to tamp down the bit of a flustered feeling that rose up at having the pretty girl look at her and put on a big smile. 

“Um, I’ll have a hot grande chocolate chai tea latte with extra whipped cream. Steve?” 

“I’ll take a hot venti salted caramel mocha,” he said without hesitation.

“Hey, look at you go! Remembering the weird Starbucks sizes all on your own!” she congratulated him, chalking this up as a win in the modern education column. 

Steve blushed a little, shrugging off the praise, as usual, “Well, I have a good teacher, Darce.” 

He turned back to Sania, giving him her card. He might not be old, but he was old fashioned and insisted on paying anytime they went out. She let him know that in this day and age sometimes the woman liked to pick up the check or split it, and he promised to take that into consideration if he ever went out with any other women, but asked for her to humor him. She had no problem with it herself. If the hunky blonde wanted to pay for her over priced latte from his back pay from the army, who was she to stop him?

“Miss, I’m sorry about what that woman said,” he said to Sonia, “It was very inappropriate of her.” 

“Thanks, but I’m not worried about it,” she said, sending a genuine smile his way.

“Well, I hope you have a happy holiday, whatever holiday you choose to keep,” Darcy said, putting a $20 bill into the tip jar as the nasty woman glared daggers at them from a few feet away.

Steve also contributed a $20 to the tip jar, and they moved towards the other end of the counter, ignoring the woman’s sour looks. Darcy made a face at her as she stormed past with her pumpkin spice latte.

“I love the holiday season,” Darcy said, gently touching the faux holly garland strung up on the counter. 

“Yeah, the decorations and lights are fun. It wasn’t such a production back then. My folks couldn’t do much more than a small tree and hand made decorations when I was a kid, we didn’t have enough money. And then after my parents died, before I joined the Army, I had even less, but I loved going out and seeing the lights and decorations. How about you, any fun memories?” Steve asked.

“My family celebrates Hanukkah. We’re not really that religious, but I was envious of my Christmas keeping friends as a kid; Christmas trees look cool, and once my mom realized I felt like I was missing out on the fun, she made a bigger production of Hanukkah. We would decorate the house together, stringing up lights and garlands, and light the hanukkiah every night. She didn’t do presents every night, but a few times we’d have a big party on the last night and have friends over for latkes and dreidel and stuff.” 

“That sounds like fun. Bucky’s family kept Hanukkah. I remember his sister and his mom lighting the candles. They were very pretty. And they made some very delicious latkes. Do you still keep it?” he asked as they picked up their drinks and headed to a table in the corner.

“Yeah. Yesterday was actually the first night for this year. I had Jane and Thor over. He can shovel down some latkes, that’s for sure!” 

Steve laughed, the sound filling the small space as Darcy joined in. 

“Jane gave us a run for our money in dreidel though. You should stop by one night if you want, watch me light the candles. I’ll see if I can scrounge up any more potatoes.” 

“That would be great. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything fun for the holidays. Last year, things were still crazy with rebuilding. I mean, I went to a few of Stark’s parties, but those didn’t feel like a real celebration. Ass kissing is not how I like to celebrate.” 

Darcy snorted into her latte.

“And the year before that, well, I guess several years before that but you know… We did our best to celebrate, but you can’t really keep up with Christmas trees, lights, and presents on the front lines.” 

“Well, we should do something special for you this year, Steve. How about a good old fashioned Hanukkah party? Everyone’s been working hard lately, even Stark, though don’t you dare tell him I told you that. We could have it on the last day, in the common room. We could decorate with lights and stuff, and even get a tree if you wanted. Tony has been talking about getting one for his lab and I keep telling him no, so I’m sure that would make him happy.”

“That sounds like a great plan! I’d love to help you decorate. Do you want to go look for a tree on Friday?” Steve asked, his face bright with excitement. 

“Sure!” Darcy said as they got up from the table, throwing away their empty cups. 

As they ventured back out into the cold they made plans for decorating as they hopped onto Steve’s bike. Darcy grinned into his back as she wrapped her arms around them before they sped off to their planned excursion for the day at MoMA. It was good to have friends to look after, and it had been a long time since she’d made any fun Hanukkah plans.


	3. Night 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy brings Dr. Bruce Banner some holiday cheer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was planning on writing a chapter a day, and life happened as it does. So, I'm a little behind Happy Hanukkah in any case!

##  Night 3: Avenger’s Tower Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Life in the labs was always exciting. A lot of people thought it was weird that Darcy, a political science major, had stuck it out with Jane Foster for so long without changing her major, but it made perfect sense to her. Politics was about people. It was about meeting needs, and Darcy was great at taking care of people. And science, especially science in Avengers Tower, was the new frontier. She figured that once she was ready to go to grad school this would make for some great stuff to put in her thesis.

Besides, she was a quick study. She might not be able to come up with theories and stuff like Jane did, or engineer and code like Tony, or create formulas or handle radioactive material like Bruce, but Darcy was good at finding patterns in data. And as everyone knows, it’s not science if you don’t write it down. Each scientist had their own assistants, Stark Industries and SHIELD had plenty of smart scientists between them, so since she moved into the Tower she hadn’t needed to do much data entry. Still, she liked to look over numbers on occasion, and make sure the labs were tidy and the scientists and assistants were taking breaks for food and sleep.

So, Tuesday afternoon found her poking her head into Bruce’s lab, two steaming cups of tea and a tray with some sandwiches in hand. Darcy had it on good authority (JARVIS) that he’d skipped lunch. She found him hunched over a book in front of an array of computers, one hand unconsciously massaging his temple in a sure sign of a headache. 

A lot of the other interns and lab assistants were afraid of Dr. Banner, afraid that he would Hulk out at the slightest provocation. Not Darcy. After meeting Bruce, and seeing how skittish he was around other people, any worries she might have evaporated. He was afraid of the Hulk himself. He was obviously doing his level best to keep the monster under wraps, and Darcy just thought he needed some friends. People who had demons and challenges of their own, just trying to make it through the day unscathed. 

“Hey Darcy,” he said as she approached, putting his book down. 

His smile looked tired. 

“How’s it hangin’, Doc? I brought you sustenance,” she said cheerfully, waiting for him to move a pile of papers from the desk so she could put down the tray. 

“Thanks, you didn’t have to bring me this.” 

“Nope, I didn’t. But I wanted to. A little AI told me you’d missed lunch,” she said, snagging one of the triangular egg salad sandwiches for herself. 

Bruce gave an exaggerated sigh before glancing at the ceiling with a fond quirk of his lips that miiiight have been construed as a smile. He took a sip of his steaming mug of tea, humming a sigh of appreciation, before reaching for a half sandwich of his own. 

“Do you like the tea? It’s a new one, loose leaf lavender lemon,” she asked proudly.

“It’s delicious. So are these sandwiches. You really didn’t have to do this, Darcy. You’re not my lab assistant, and even if you were, I don’t expect my assistants to feed me,” Bruce said.

“Aw, don’t worry about it, Doc. I like feeding my scientists. Besides, this gives me a break from going over PR reports,” she said.

“Yeah? How’s that going?” 

Darcy sighed, “Good.”

“Buuuut…” Bruce prompted.

“But sometimes it can be frustrating, running the Avengers Instagram and Facebook pages with a team. Some of the stuff the team posts just feels so, I don’t know, fake. Too cheery, ya know? I’ve tried to make it more real since I took over, with actual pictures of the team hanging out. But there’s such strict rules on what I can post. I can’t show any brands unless they’re endorsed, and THAT is a whole kettle of fish I hate sticking my hand in, and I can’t post anything that might be too political or opinionated, we’ve gotta be bipartisan and family friendly. And I can’t post anything that might reveal details about missions, and I have to be careful about revealing locations outside of the obvious. Which is not easy when you're posting about Captain America, Tony Stark, and two Assassins. Thor’s ok. I just tell him to smile, and we’re good. You’re good, I have to work to get you to allow me to take your pic anyways. But the others? Landmines. Everywhere.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing a great job. I’m not on social media much.”

“I know, and I’m working to change that,” Darcy interrupted.

“But, from what I’ve seen, you’ve done a great job, Darcy. I like that post you put up the other day with Tony and I in the lab.”

“Oh my god, that ‘Double trouble’ picture got the most likes last week! You two looked like absolute mad scientists!” 

“Well, Tony really knows how to blow stuff up.” 

“You’re not too bad at it yourself, Doc. If my memory serves me right, you’re the one that came up with the chemical component of that particular fuel mix,” Darcy teased. 

“Hey! I just tweaked his existing formula a bit. Tony wasn’t supposed to use so much of it at once!” 

“It’s a good thing Dummy has a lot of practice with a fire extinguisher.” 

They laughed together while polishing off the last of the sandwiches. 

“Don’t take the stress too hard, Darcy. We need all the good PR we can get, and you do a great job of showing the real side of us. Before it was just some unknown person taking a picture of me from far enough away to be safe. You don’t make me feel nervous about it, and I know that if I ask you not to post something you won’t or if I want you to tell the world how I feel or think about something you will. That’s important. You do a great job of taking care of us,” Bruce said seriously. 

“Thanks, Bruce. That does make me feel better. What the Avengers is doing is important, and everyone’s a critic. I know we can’t make everyone happy, and sometimes I think the PR team forgets that. I don’t want our voice to get lost in the shuffle of looking good. You guys stand for something important, and I don’t want the world to forget that.” 

“And they won’t.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” Darcy said with a proud tilt of her chin.

Bruce laughed softly in agreement.

“Well, I’ll have a great photo opportunity next week, Steve and I are throwing a Hanukkah party in the common room on Sunday. Please tell me you’ll come! I’m making latkes and there will be lots of chocolate and jelly doughnuts,” Darcy said excitedly. 

“Hanukkah, huh? I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Hanukkah party before. What are latkes?” Bruce asked.

“Oh my god, then you have to come! They’re potato pancakes, and they’re soooooo goooood. I’m going to be like 10 pounds fatter next week if I keep eating them.” 

Bruce shook his head with a smile, not wanting to touch that last comment with a ten feet pole. 

“Well, I’ll have to come just to try them then.” 

“Good. Now, you’ve gotta start thinking about a Christmas present list too. We’re going to end up having a Christmas party too, and I was thinking we could do Secret Santa or White Elephant or something. We need a gag gift and a serious gift list.”

This gave Bruce pause. He hadn’t really done much for any holidays in a few years, making a concerted effort to be a loner, feeling it was safer that way. Having friends, a family that loved him was new. It was good, but sometimes it surprised him in unexpected ways.

“I'll have to think about it. I don’t think I need anything.” 

“Ok. Just remember it’s not about what you need. Though if you need something, absolutely include it on the wish list. It’s about the stuff you see and want but don’t get. Or stuff you see that reminds you of people, then get it for them. It’s for fun.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“Well, as you come up with stuff, for your wish list, or stuff you want to get others, just let JARVIS know. He can help you get things, and will tell you if someone else already got the same thing for someone. He’s playing head elf.”

The image of the disembodied AI as an elf was an amusing one. Darcy left him with an empty tray, a half full mug of delicious tea, and a smile on his face. She marked it down as her good deed of the day, spreading some Hanukkah light. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, mostly just fluff, heavy on the history. plot to come!


End file.
